TAMPA — Before we move on to Derek Jeter’s next contract, let’s appreciate the 10-year deal that is concluding this season — because it is a triumph for the Yankees.
Jeter began this contract a decade ago as an elite player and is ending it the same way. This is pretty close to a baseball miracle. The history of this type of mega-deal is not pretty. Just look at what a payroll killer the seven-year, $126 million deal Vernon Wells inked with the Blue Jays has become.
No single pact can stagger the Yankees in the same way that Wells’ has done in Toronto. The Yankees organization’s oversized budget enables it to absorb mistakes such as Kei Igawa or Carl Pavano in a way few others can.
Nevertheless, there is a minefield out there for the Yankees. In just base salary, the Yankees are due to pay $90 million to Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett in 2013. The youngest will be Sabathia and Teixeira, both at 33. This is before we find out if the Yankees do as much as a three-year extension with Jeter, which would drive the 2013 payroll well over $100 million for five players.
That is why part of what goes on with the Yankees now is a countdown. Can they get all of the contracts to expire before any of them blows up on the team? The Yankees can exhale about running nearly the whole marathon on Jeter’s $189 million deal, and also the three-year, $45 million pact with Mariano Rivera. But then the sweating will begin.
Can they get two more years ($26.2 million) out of Jorge Posada, a catcher in his late 30s who missed a chunk of 2008 for shoulder surgery?
If Rodriguez had never opted out of the original 10-year contract he signed with the Rangers, this would be the final season of that deal. Instead, Rodriguez is just three years into a 10-year extension and a year removed from major hip surgery. Amazingly, he still is signed further into the future, through 2017, than anyone in the sport. He will turn 42 that season, so what are the chances that 10-year deal goes as well for the Yankees as the one they signed with Jeter?
Teixeira is signed through 2016, tied with St. Louis’ Matt Holliday for the second longest into the future that any player is guaranteed money. Sabathia, a heavyweight with a heavy workload, is signed through 2015. Rodriguez, Teixeira and Sabathia are signed for a combined $66 million in 2015.
Burnett, who just had his first-ever back-to-back 200-inning seasons, is enlisted through 2013.
Imagine it is 2011 and Sabathia falls to less than an ace, Burnett is hurt again and Posada cannot catch. That kind of scenario would be a crisis even for the Yankees.
“There is risk involved,” general manager Brian Cashman conceded.
To date, the Yankees have been mostly fortunate with aging players. Jason Giambi limped to the finish line of a seven-year deal in 2008 as a still productive player, as did Hideki Matsui last season, when his four-year deal concluded. One reason the Yankees did not want to go long-term with Johnny Damon was the fear of having too many aging bodies in one place at one time.
With greater concentration on drug testing, most of the sport has felt the sting of older players performing like old players. But the Yankees were mainly impervious in 2009. Rivera’s fastball fell to the 89-91 mph range, but his effectiveness did not fall at all. Jeter had a season reminiscent of the best of his prime. Rodriguez came back from the hip surgery to somehow drive in 100 runs. Posada rebounded remarkably from the shoulder surgery. Andy Pettitte also rebounded wonderfully from shoulder issues. Matsui and Damon remained big bats.
It was the best cast of thirtysomethings ever. Just consider that only 11 AL players 33 or older had an OPS better than .850 and five of those were Yankees (Rodriguez, Posada, Matsui, Jeter and Damon).
It would be foolhardy for the Yankees to believe they will be so fortunate again. The clock is ticking on the time-bomb contracts.